First Weaving Project

Here is a picture of the first piece of cloth I ever made. It was woven on a 32 inch Ashford Rigid Heddle Loom. I used leftover scrap yarn from a baby blanket I knitted for a friend’s baby. The warp (long strands that wrap around the loom) is yellow and the weft (strands that go back and forth through the warp) is white and then I transitioned to yellow to practice changing colors. The cloth is “balanced”, which means the same amount of warp and weft is visible in the finished cloth.

You can see that I got better at making the weft tighter as I went along. I started out very loose and also had to learn to control the tension so that the sides didn't contract. It only took me an hour and a half to make this entire piece. It was a great way to practice getting the feel for the loom. It used to stress me out if I wasn’t immediately good at things. But during five years of ceramics, I learned to let perfection go and focus my energy on learning the process of a new art form. There’s something good or bad to be learned from each piece and it's good to remember that when learning to weave.